Director of Computing at ECMWF

he European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by 34 Member and Co-operating States. The Centre provides its members with world-leading global weather predictions, climate monitoring, air quality forecasts and operates a supercomputer and archive data centre for the benefits of its members and the wider weather and climate communities.

Supercomputing capability plays a key role in ECMWF’s success and in its ability to implement its strategic vision to 2025. In order to meet the required flexibility for future growth, ECMWF’s data centre is being relocated to Bologna, Italy and will be operational in 2020. The new Director of Computing will be responsible for delivering this challenging transition, fit-out and transformation, whilst ensuring that ECMWF’s computing capability continues to support some of the most critical scientific advances of our time.

 

The Role

The Director of Computing will:

• Be a member of ECMWF’s senior management team and will contribute fully to the leadership and direction of the organisation, supporting the development and delivery of our long-term strategy.
• Lead a department of approximately 60 staff, with the responsibility for defining, developing and delivering the High Performance Computing (HPC) strategy, operations and future procurements, including the management and evolution of the world’s largest meteorological data archive.
• Provide strategic leadership to the programme responsible for the establishment of the new data centre in Bologna, Italy, including IT transformation, fit-out and migration.
• Be responsible for a highly demanding 365/24/7 HPC facility and supporting data archive, and ensuring resilient and mission-critical computing services.
• Foster and maintain excellent relationship with members of the ECMWF governing Council and other advisory committees as well as with HPC centres, partners and vendors.

The Person:

• Strong proven track record as a leader with exposure to a scientific, technical or research-led environment and recognised for excellence in their field of expertise, preferably in an international context.
• A confident and experienced senior manager used to achieving business objectives. Adept at influencing and managing people to ensure the delivery of strategic outcomes and operational activities.
• An innovative mindset, accompanied by excellent communication and influencing skills. Adept at motivating and developing highly skilled staff, forging effective relationships with key stakeholders and delivering challenging outcomes in a, multi-cultural and international environment.
• Fluency in English is essential. A good knowledge of Italian would be an advantage and some knowledge of French or German would be desirable.

For an informal and confidential discussion, please speak with our advisors at Berwick Partners; Jonathan Clark on 0121 654 5926 or Matt Cockbill 0121 654 5907

Closing date for applications: 23rd April – 12 noon